{"id":5569,"date":"2020-12-27T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5569"},"modified":"2020-07-05T21:15:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T02:15:22","slug":"joy-in-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5569","title":{"rendered":"Joy in Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christmas has passed and the New Year will soon be upon us. Perhaps it\u2019s wise to carry the message of Christmas into the New Year\u2014a message of joy. Joy to the world because the Lord has come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was much joy when Jesus came. Before He came, there was no hope. When Jesus was born it was a joyous time. \u201cAnd suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, \u2018Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men\u2019\u201d (Luke 2:8-14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJoy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room.\u201d Is my heart so full of other things that I don\u2019t have room for Jesus? If I have Jesus in my heart, I will have joy. Jesus is my joy. His joy needs to be in me and it can\u2019t be in me if I don\u2019t make room for it (John 15:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember the song I sang as a young child. \u201cI have that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Down in my heart to stay.\u201d I want that joy down in my heart throughout the coming year and every day of my life. So each day I need to acknowledge that God is the source of all joy (Psalm 45:4). There is joy in the presence of God (Psalm 21:6; Psalm 16:11). There is joy in praising God (Psalm 43:4). There is joy in thanking God (Colossians 1:2). There is joy in believing what God says (Philippians 1:6). There is joy in trusting God (Romans 15:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is joy in Jesus. There is joy in knowing He came to earth. There is joy in knowing He accepts, loves, and died for us\u2014inexpressible, glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8). It\u2019s the kind of joy that\u2019s hard to put into words. One has to experience it. It\u2019s genuine and can\u2019t be faked. It\u2019s a joy that no man can take away (John 16:22). It\u2019s a joy that is always with me in good times and in bad (Philippians 4:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that\u2019s what I want this next year. I want that joy, joy, joy, joy of Jesus down in my heart\u2014down in my heart to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh Jesus, You are my joy! As the New Year approaches help me stay focused on You. May there always be room in my heart for You. May I always rejoice in Your presence. May I always praise and worship You. May I always trust and believe You. My prayer for this next year is that You will live in my heart and let it overflow with Your presence and love. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026 Christmas has passed and the New Year will soon be upon us. Perhaps it\u2019s wise to carry the message of Christmas into the New Year\u2014a message of joy. Joy to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}